giving 6 year old soya milk daily

[bindu_madhu]

Hi all,

i am new to this forum. i need to ask whether it is okay to give my 6 year old son soya milk everyday

[syd'smom]

I wouldn't. And welcome to Mothering. There is lots of info here and heaps of great mamas.

[dahlialia]

My DD (she's now 7) has been drinking soy milk daily for years. We have both cow's and soy milk in the house, and soy is what she chooses.

[staceychev]

Personally, I'm not a fan of soy, especially non-fermented soy like in soy milk. I'd also be concerned about the phytoestrogens, the idea of soy as an endocrine disruptor, the fact that most soy is GM, the fact that soy milk has sugar added to it ... I could go on. If you search the web, there's a lot of info out there, and if you search this site, you'll find a lot of info.

I was macrobiotic for years and truly believe that the soy that I ate was partially responsible for the hypothyroidism I developed.

Welcome to Mothering, by the way. Glad you've come! Sorry if I came across really aggressive--it's something I feel really strongly about!

[Drummer's Wife]

Have you tried almond milk? I, personally, wouldn't be comfy with soy on a regular basis - but some people feel that way about cow milk, too, so it's all relative.

[ErinYay]

I feel that if a child is getting as close to NO processed food as possible, then daily soy milk would be not-horrible, but not ideal. Otherwise, there is so much "hidden" soy that I wouldn't, especially with a little boy, as the estrogen-like qualities of soy can really mess up their endocrine system, to the point of causing them to develop secondary *female* sexual traits, like breast tissue. That said, I also am uncomfortable with little girls getting excess soy, for similar reasons.

In Asian countries where we assume they eat a lot of soy, it turns out that they actually don't- they max out around 36 grams a day. There's 240 grams of soy protein in one cup of soy milk, which is, what, like 6 times the full daily amount?

(One source, but you can find lots more research if you Google "soy bad babies," or something along those lines.)

[WTHamI?]

Yeah, I really wouldn't because of the phytoestrogens. I notice a negative effect on my hormones from unfermented soy myself when I drink it, so I personally would not give it to a child except on rare occasions. If you don't want to do cow's or goat's milk then almond or coconut milk would probably be the safest substitutes.

[ShadowMoon]

DS has soy milk almost every day. He also has almond milk sometimes. Our family doesn't shy away from soy products, but we don't overdo it either.

[MJB]

I have read up on soy and I believe it is good for you. My boys have soymilk every day in their cereal. We eat it in all its yummy forms. My husband and I have both been consuming soy since our teens and we are all very healthy. When I was doing my research I found that a LOT of the anti-soy sources come from the same people, who are not scientists.

[mamadelbosque]

I'm not a 'soy is the devil' person, as we do eat some soy (mostly as soy sauce/tamari, but tofu occasionally as well as edame and the once in a long while boca burger or something), but I would not encourage it daily. Just too many phytoestrogens for my comfort level w/ either a boy OR a girl!!

[mattemma04]

I would recommend you vary the *milks* with soy,almond,rice,oat,and whatever else you can buy/make. Always good to have variety,and soy/hormone research will show it can be to much of a good thing if given daily.

[ashleyhaugh]

my son (almost 3) drinks soy milk daily... he didnt really start til he was 2 and started daycare though, and i had to provide a milk replacement. anyway. we vary it some (its gonna be rice milk for a while, because i caught a good sale, and he had coconut milk last week we got on clearnace) but the usual is soy milk

[JElaineB]

Mothering had a pretty good article a while back about soy. You can read it at http://mothering.com/food/whole-soy-story.

[ErinYay]

I really think those who do give their young kids daily soy should do a bit more research- the Mothering article above is very good.

Soy isofalvones are used by menopausal women to produce estrogen, and by women who are trying to concieve- soy isoflavones work very much like Clomid, and I doubt anyone would deliberately give a child Clomid.

from the Mothering article:

The average isoflavones intake in China is 3 milligrams, or 0.05 mg per kilogram of body weight. In Japan, the figures range from 10 to 28 mg, or 0.17 to 0.47 isoflavones per kg of body weight.

Compare this to one 8 oz glass of soy milk, which contains 20mg of soy isoflavones alone, which is almost 7 times what your average person in China takes, and between 3 times and 100% of what your average person in Japan consumes, all from one cup of soy milk.

To mimic Clomid, soy isoflavones are taken for 5 days at the beginning on the menstrual cycle, in amounts of 100mg to 200mg. No other soy should be consumed during that cycle, as excess soy throughout a cycle can supress fertility.

Soy is, as I said above, found in almost every processed food as well, so unless you literally eat no processed food and no other soy, even 1 8oz cup of soy milk is giving your kiddos way, way more isoflavones than adults of "soy-consuming" countries eat in a whole day. 5 cups a day is enough to help trigger ovulation- are you really comfortable giving your kids even 1/5th of something that can do such a powerful thing?

(As an aside, it does boggle my mind how so many people pick and choose which scientists to trust. The scientists who say vaccines will help, not hurt? They are devils. The scientists who say that soy milk won't hurt, but help? They are geniuses.)

(You can also find the isoflavone content for various foods here, under "data table.")